First, an “object” and a “region” which are terminology used in this specification will be described. In this specification, the “region” means an area on a display screen. The “object” is a part of the “region”. In particular, the “region” means the area which can be selected by selection operation (such as click of a mouse, for example) performed by a user using an input device. Specifically, as an example of the “object”, the region in which a text provided with a link is placed, the region in which a button is placed or the like in Graphical User Interface are mentioned.
In the field of computers, it has been a mainstream to use Graphical User Interface (hereinafter, referred to as “GUI (Graphical User Interface)”) for an operation screen. In recent years, in the field of not only the computers but also the electronic devices such as a cellular phone, a digital camera or the like, it has been a mainstream to use a menu screen or the like using the GUI.
And, in the GUI, for improvement of usability, various evaluation systems which evaluate usability of the GUI and show a result of the analysis are proposed. As one of such evaluation systems, there is a system which acquires visibility information of an operator of the GUI by eye tracking analysis, and evaluates based on the acquired visibility information. In the eye tracking analysis, a movement of operator's pupil is detected with an infrared sensor, and a viewing position and its order are acquired as the visibility information.
By utilizing such an evaluation system using the eye tracking analysis, a designer of the GUI can analyze earliness and order of viewing for an object which should be selected by an operator for achieving a certain task (hereinafter, referred to as “selection target object”). And, based on a result of the analysis, the designer can obtain a guideline which says, in order that the selection target object is selected more certainly, “a position of the selection target object should be moved from the present position to the position to be viewed earlier”. The designer moves the position of the selection target object based on this guideline, and achieves improvement of usability of the GUI.
A system for achieving improvement of usability of the GUI is also proposed (refer to patent documents 1-3). The system disclosed by patent documents 1-3 acquires an operation history of the operator, and performs positioning change of the object on the screen based on the acquired operation history. The system disclosed by patent documents 1-3 is not a system to evaluate the GUI. However, by utilizing this system, the operator can easily operate the object which is frequently selected. Therefore, the usability improvement of the GUI is achieved by utilizing this system.